Children's protection bill condemned

Children's protection bill condemned

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Non-governmental organization activists harshly criticized the
bill on children's protection being deliberated by the House of
Representatives for what they claimed was a lack of details,
vague sanctions and an absence of a watchdog committee.

Bambang Budi Setiawan of the Indonesian Child Welfare
Foundation, said that the House seemed to be in a hurry in
composing the bill, which resulted in a less than comprehensive
law.

Indonesia ratified the UN Convention on Child Protection in
1990.

"I know that the deadline is tight but the bill must be made
stronger for the sake of children, not for some groups or
political parties," he told The Jakarta Post.

The bill is expected to be passed into law on July 17 to
commemorate National Children's Day on July 23.

Separately, the National Committee for Child Protection
secretary general Aris Merdeka Sirait said that he suspected the
bill reeked of political interference at it ignored the
establishment of a national committee for children's rights.

"I am convinced that the bill is only a paper tiger, because
the rules are not feasible," he told the Post.

Both Aris and Bambang said that in the late 1990s, some NGOs
submitted a similar draft on children's protection that was much
more comprehensive, feasible and reliable than the current bill.

Aris said that the bill would not give clear sanctions to the
government when it failed to provide public facilities for
children to play, especially in residential areas.

He said that the law should impose a punishment of at least
five years in jail to parents who pushed children to work as TV
stars late at night and "severe" sanctions to parents who forced
children to study more than four hours a day.

They agreed that the establishment of a national committee for
children's rights, a watchdog body for law implementation, was at
least one crucial point that was missing from the current bill.

"The committee needs to be set up to control whether the
policy makers violate the law and to report to international
organizations about the progress of child protection in
Indonesia," Bambang said.